Funeral for Our Post Office
Within 20 minutes of the the doors shutting for the final time at Peckham Rye Lane Crown Post Office on Saturday August 20th, workers were outside stripping all signage. We photographed it and called it “Our Funeral”.
Here’s a last look at the interior with staff still behind the counter tallying up for the final time!
And we believe we posted the last letter accepted for franking from Rye Lane Crown - a 2nd class letter to Dorset!
Meanwhile Post Office staff came out to direct removal workers.
Mike Rook, Chair of Ivanhoe Residents Association has called the closure a local tragedy. Mike is nearly 80 and remembers a post office in the same spot growing up as a child and reckons there was one very much longer.
End of an era. Death of Our Post Office in Rye Lane. Time and time again the explanation given is that the Post Office never invested in property purchase, relying on rentals so now that the London property market has gone haywire, it can no longer afford - or will no longer afford - to provide the more extensive services characteristic of a Crown, in Rye Lane. Once the Post Office is gutted and there is change of use, what will it become? Expensive flats? A new chain store? A high priced bistro?
We hope zoning rules can change at southern end of Rye Lane to make change of use more problematic for businesses seeking easy profit and in recognition of important public services. We understand the Peckham Vision group hopes to achieve this. As the CWU’s Ian Ward explained during the demo outside the Crown Post Office at the end of July: “This is a public service behind me, you own it, you run it ... but it is being sold.” http://bit.ly/2b9icpc
